The people inquire concerning fasting: they are admonished to fast from
sin.
7:1. And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Darius, that the
word of the Lord came to Zacharias, in the fourth day of the ninth
month, which is Casleu.
7:2. When Sarasar, and Rogommelech, and the men that were with him,
sent to the house of God, to entreat the face of the Lord:
7:3. To speak to the priests of the house of the Lord of hosts, and to
the prophets, saying: Must I weep in the fifth month, or must I
sanctify myself as I have now done for many years?
The fifth month. . .They fasted on the tenth day of the fifth month;
because on that day the temple was burnt. Therefore they inquire
whether they are to continue the fast, after the temple is rebuilt. See
this query answered in the 19th verse of the following chapter.
7:4. And the word of the Lord of hosts came to me, saying:
7:5. Speak to all the people of the land, and to the priests, saying:
When you fasted, and mourned in the fifth and the seventh month for
these seventy years: did you keep a fast unto me?
7:6. And when you did eat and drink, did you not eat for yourselves,
and drink for yourselves?
7:7. Are not these the words which the Lord spoke by the hand of the
former prophets, when Jerusalem as yet was inhabited, and was wealthy,
both itself and the cities round about it, and there were inhabitants
towards the south, and in the plain?
7:8. And the word of the Lord came to Zacharias, saying:
7:9. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying: Judge ye true judgment, and
shew ye mercy and compassion every man to his brother.
7:10. And oppress not the widow, and the fatherless, and the stranger,
and the poor: and let not a man devise evil in his heart against his
brother.
7:11. But they would not hearken, and they turned away the shoulder to
depart: and they stopped their ears, not to hear.
7:12. And they made their heart as the adamant stone, lest they should
hear the law, and the words which the Lord of hosts sent in his spirit
by the hand of the former prophets: so a great indignation came from
Lord of hosts.
7:13. And it came to pass that as he spoke, and they heard not: so
shall they cry, and I will not hear, saith the Lord of hosts.
7:14. And I dispersed them throughout all kingdoms, which they know
not: and the land was left desolate behind them, so that no man passed
through or returned: and they changed the delightful land into a
wilderness.